Musicaw fiwm is a fiwm genre in which songs by de characters are interwoven into de narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing.

The songs usuawwy advance de pwot or devewop de fiwm's characters, but in some cases, dey serve merewy as breaks in de storywine, often as ewaborate "production numbers."

The musicaw fiwm was a naturaw devewopment of de stage musicaw after de emergence of sound fiwm technowogy. Typicawwy, de biggest difference between fiwm and stage musicaws is de use of wavish background scenery and wocations dat wouwd be impracticaw in a deater. Musicaw fiwms characteristicawwy contain ewements reminiscent of deater; performers often treat deir song and dance numbers as if a wive audience were watching. In a sense, de viewer becomes de diegetic audience, as de performer wooks directwy into de camera and performs to it.

Musicaw short fiwms were made by Lee de Forest in 1923–24. Beginning in 1926, dousands of Vitaphone shorts were made, many featuring bands, vocawists, and dancers. The earwiest feature-wengf fiwms wif synchronized sound had onwy a soundtrack of music and occasionaw sound effects dat pwayed whiwe de actors portrayed deir characters just as dey did in siwent fiwms: widout audibwe diawogue.[1]The Jazz Singer, reweased in 1927 by Warner Broders, was de first to incwude an audio track incwuding non-diegetic music and diegetic music, but it had onwy a short seqwence of spoken diawogue. This feature-wengf fiwm was awso a musicaw, featuring Aw Jowson singing "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", "Bwue Skies", and "My Mammy". Historian Scott Eyman wrote, "As de fiwm ended and appwause grew wif de housewights, Sam Gowdwyn's wife Frances wooked around at de cewebrities in de crowd. She saw 'terror in aww deir faces', she said, as if dey knew dat 'de game dey had been pwaying for years was finawwy over'."[2] Stiww, onwy isowated seqwences featured "wive" sound; most of de fiwm had onwy a synchronous musicaw score.[1] In 1928, Warner Broders fowwowed dis up wif anoder Jowson part-tawkie, The Singing Foow, which was a bwockbuster hit.[1] Theaters scrambwed to instaww de new sound eqwipment and to hire Broadway composers to write musicaws for de screen, uh-hah-hah-hah.[3] The first aww-tawking feature, Lights of New York, incwuded a musicaw seqwence in a night cwub. The endusiasm of audiences was so great dat in wess dan a year aww de major studios were making sound pictures excwusivewy. The Broadway Mewody (1929) had a show-biz pwot about two sisters competing for a charming song-and-dance man, uh-hah-hah-hah. Advertised by MGM as de first "Aww-Tawking, Aww-Singing, Aww-Dancing" feature fiwm, it was a hit and won de Academy Award for Best Picture for 1929. There was a rush by de studios to hire tawent from de stage to star in wavishwy fiwmed versions of Broadway hits. The Love Parade (Paramount 1929) starred Maurice Chevawier and newcomer Jeanette MacDonawd, written by Broadway veteran Guy Bowton.[3]

Howwywood reweased more dan 100 musicaw fiwms in 1930, but onwy 14 in 1931.[4] By wate 1930, audiences had been oversaturated wif musicaws and studios were forced to cut de music from fiwms dat were den being reweased. For exampwe, Life of de Party (1930) was originawwy produced as an aww-cowor, aww-tawking musicaw comedy. Before it was reweased, however, de songs were cut out. The same ding happened to Fifty Miwwion Frenchmen (1931) and Manhattan Parade (1932) bof of which had been fiwmed entirewy in Technicowor. Marwene Dietrich sang songs successfuwwy in her fiwms, and Rodgers and Hart wrote a few weww-received fiwms, but even deir popuwarity waned by 1932.[4] The pubwic had qwickwy come to associate cowor wif musicaws and dus de decwine in deir popuwarity awso resuwted in a decwine in cowor productions.

The taste in musicaws revived again in 1933 when director Busby Berkewey began to enhance de traditionaw dance number wif ideas drawn from de driww precision he had experienced as a sowdier during Worwd War I. In fiwms such as 42nd Street and Gowd Diggers of 1933 (1933), Berkewey choreographed a number of fiwms in his uniqwe stywe. Berkewey's numbers typicawwy begin on a stage but graduawwy transcend de wimitations of deatricaw space: his ingenious routines, invowving human bodies forming patterns wike a kaweidoscope, couwd never fit onto a reaw stage and de intended perspective is viewing from straight above.[5]

Musicaw stars such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were among de most popuwar and highwy respected personawities in Howwywood during de cwassicaw era; de Fred and Ginger pairing was particuwarwy successfuw, resuwting in a number of cwassic fiwms, such as Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936), and Shaww We Dance (1937). Many dramatic actors gwadwy participated in musicaws as a way to break away from deir typecasting. For instance, de muwti-tawented James Cagney had originawwy risen to fame as a stage singer and dancer, but his repeated casting in "tough guy" rowes and mob fiwms gave him few chances to dispway dese tawents. Cagney's Oscar-winning rowe in Yankee Doodwe Dandy (1942) awwowed him to sing and dance, and he considered it to be one of his finest moments.

Many comedies (and a few dramas) incwuded deir own musicaw numbers. The Marx Broders' fiwms incwuded a musicaw number in nearwy every fiwm, awwowing de Broders to highwight deir musicaw tawents. Their finaw fiwm, entitwed Love Happy (1949), featured Vera-Ewwen, considered to be de best dancer among her cowweagues and professionaws in de hawf century.

In de 1960s, 1970s, and continuing up to today, de musicaw fiwm became wess of a bankabwe genre dat couwd be rewied upon for sure-fire hits. Audiences for dem wessened and fewer musicaw fiwms were produced as de genre became wess mainstream and more speciawized.

Despite dis exception of awmost every Indian movie being a musicaw and India producing de most number of movies in de worwd (Formed in 1913), de first Bowwywood fiwm to be a compwete musicaw Dev D (Directed by Anurag Kashyap) came in de year 2009. The second fiwm to fowwow its track was Jagga Jasoos (Directed by Anurag Basu) in de year 2017.

The first Indian sound fiwm, Ardeshir Irani's Awam Ara (1931), was a major commerciaw success.[11] There was cwearwy a huge market for tawkies and musicaws; Bowwywood and aww de regionaw fiwm industries qwickwy switched to sound fiwming.

In 1937, Ardeshir Irani, of Awam Ara fame, made de first cowour fiwm in Hindi, Kisan Kanya. The next year, he made anoder cowour fiwm, a version of Moder India. However, cowour did not become a popuwar feature untiw de wate 1950s. At dis time, wavish romantic musicaws and mewodramas were de stapwe fare at de cinema.

The 1970s was awso when de name "Bowwywood" was coined,[27][28] and when de qwintessentiaw conventions of commerciaw Bowwywood fiwms were estabwished.[29] Key to dis was de emergence of de masawa fiwm genre, which combines ewements of muwtipwe genres (action, comedy, romance, drama, mewodrama, musicaw). The masawa fiwm was pioneered in de earwy 1970s by fiwmmaker Nasir Hussain,[30] awong wif screenwriter duo Sawim-Javed,[29] pioneering de Bowwywood bwockbuster format.[29]Yaadon Ki Baarat (1973), directed by Hussain and written by Sawim-Javed, has been identified as de first masawa fiwm and de "first" qwintessentiawwy "Bowwywood" fiwm.[31][29] Sawim-Javed went on to write more successfuw masawa fiwms in de 1970s and 1980s.[29] Masawa fiwms waunched Amitabh Bachchan into de biggest Bowwywood movie star of de 1970s and 1980s. A wandmark for de masawa fiwm genre was Amar Akbar Andony (1977),[32][31] directed by Manmohan Desai and written by Kader Khan. Manmohan Desai went on to successfuwwy expwoit de genre in de 1970s and 1980s.

In de wate 1980s, Hindi cinema experienced anoder period of stagnation, wif a decwine in box office turnout, due to increasing viowence, decwine in musicaw mewodic qwawity, and rise in video piracy, weading to middwe-cwass famiwy audiences abandoning deaters. The turning point came wif Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), directed by Mansoor Khan, written and produced by his fader Nasir Hussain, and starring his cousin Aamir Khan wif Juhi Chawwa. Its bwend of youdfuwness, whowesome entertainment, emotionaw qwotients and strong mewodies wured famiwy audiences back to de big screen, uh-hah-hah-hah.[35][36] It set a new tempwate for Bowwywood musicaw romance fiwms dat defined Hindi cinema in de 1990s.[36]

Unwike de musicaw fiwms of Howwywood and Bowwywood, popuwarwy identified wif escapism, de Soviet musicaw was first and foremost a form of propaganda. Vwadimir Lenin said dat cinema was "de most important of de arts." His successor, Joseph Stawin, awso recognized de power of cinema in efficientwy spreading Communist Party doctrine. Fiwms were widewy popuwar in de 1920s, but it was foreign cinema dat dominated de Soviet fiwmgoing market. Fiwms from Germany and de U.S. proved more entertaining dan Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein's historicaw dramas.[46] By de 1930s it was cwear dat if de Soviet cinema was to compete wif its Western counterparts, it wouwd have to give audiences what dey wanted: de gwamour and fantasy dey got from Howwywood.[47] The musicaw fiwm, which emerged at dat time, embodied de ideaw combination of entertainment and officiaw ideowogy.

A struggwe between waughter for waughter's sake and entertainment wif a cwear ideowogicaw message wouwd define de gowden age of de Soviet musicaw of de 1930s and 1940s. Then-head of de fiwm industry Boris Shumyatsky sought to emuwate Howwywood's conveyor bewt medod of production, going so far as to suggest de estabwishment of a Soviet Howwywood.[48]

In 1930, de esteemed Soviet fiwm director Sergei Eisenstein went to de United States wif fewwow director Grigori Aweksandrov to study Howwywood's fiwmmaking process. The American fiwms greatwy impacted Aweksandrov, particuwarwy de musicaws.[49] He returned in 1932, and in 1934 directed The Jowwy Fewwows, de first Soviet musicaw. The fiwm was wight on pwot and focused more on de comedy and musicaw numbers. Party officiaws at first met de fiwm wif great hostiwity. Aweksandrov defended his work by arguing de notion of waughter for waughter's sake.[50] Finawwy, when Aweksandrov showed de fiwm to Stawin, de weader decided dat musicaws were an effective means of spreading propaganda. Messages wike de importance of cowwective wabor and rags-to-riches stories wouwd become de pwots of most Soviet musicaws.

The success of The Jowwy Fewwows ensured a pwace in Soviet cinema for de musicaw format, but immediatewy Shumyatsky set strict guidewines to make sure de fiwms promoted Communist vawues. Shumyatsky's decree "Movies for de Miwwions" demanded conventionaw pwots, characters, and montage to successfuwwy portray Sociawist Reawism (de gworification of industry and de working cwass) on fiwm.[51]

The first successfuw bwend of a sociaw message and entertainment was Aweksandrov's Circus (1936). It starred his wife, Lyubov Orwova (an operatic singer who had awso appeared in The Jowwy Fewwows) as an American circus performer who has to immigrate to de USSR from de U.S. because she has a mixed-race chiwd, whom she had wif a bwack man, uh-hah-hah-hah. Amidst de backdrop of wavish musicaw productions, she finawwy finds wove and acceptance in de USSR, providing de message dat raciaw towerance can onwy be found in de Soviet Union, uh-hah-hah-hah.

The infwuence of Busby Berkewey's choreography on Aweksandrov's directing can be seen in de musicaw number weading up to de cwimax. Anoder, more obvious reference to Howwywood is de Charwie Chapwin impersonator who provides comic rewief droughout de fiwm. Four miwwion peopwe in Moscow and Leningrad went to see Circus during its first monf in deaters.[52]

Anoder of Aweksandrov's more-popuwar fiwms was The Bright Paf (1940). This was a reworking of de fairytawe Cinderewwa set in de contemporary Soviet Union, uh-hah-hah-hah. The Cinderewwa of de story was again Orwova, who by dis time was de most popuwar star in de USSR.[53] It was a fantasy tawe, but de moraw of de story was dat a better wife comes from hard work. Whereas in Circus, de musicaw numbers invowved dancing and spectacwe, de onwy type of choreography in Bright Paf is de movement of factory machines. The music was wimited to Orwova's singing. Here, work provided de spectacwe.

The oder director of musicaw fiwms was Ivan Pyryev. Unwike Aweksandrov, de focus of Pyryev's fiwms was wife on de cowwective farms. His fiwms, Tractor Drivers (1939), The Swineherd and de Shepherd (1941), and his most famous, Cossacks of de Kuban (1949) aww starred his wife, Marina Ladynina. Like in Aweksandrov's Bright Paf, de onwy choreography was de work de characters were doing on fiwm. Even de songs were about de joys of working.

Rader dan having a specific message for any of his fiwms, Pyryev promoted Stawin's swogan "wife has become better, wife has become more joyous."[54] Sometimes dis message was in stark contrast wif de reawity of de time. During de fiwming of Cossacks of de Kuban, de Soviet Union was going drough a postwar famine. In reawity, de actors who were singing about a time of prosperity were hungry and mawnourished.[55] The fiwms did, however, provide escapism and optimism for de viewing pubwic.

The most popuwar fiwm of de brief era of Stawinist musicaws was Awexandrov's 1938 fiwm Vowga-Vowga. The star, again, was Lyubov Orwova and de fiwm featured singing and dancing, having noding to do wif work. It is de most unusuaw of its type. The pwot surrounds a wove story between two individuaws who want to pway music. They are unrepresentative of Soviet vawues in dat deir focus is more on deir music dan deir jobs. The gags poke fun at de wocaw audorities and bureaucracy. There is no gworification of industry since it takes pwace in a smaww ruraw viwwage. Work is not gworified eider, since de pwot revowves around a group of viwwagers using deir vacation time to go on a trip up de Vowga to perform in Moscow.

Vowga-Vowga fowwowed de aesdetic principwes of Sociawist Reawism rader dan de ideowogicaw tenets. It became Stawin's favorite fiwm and he gave it as a gift to President Roosevewt during WWII. It is anoder exampwe of one of de fiwms dat cwaimed wife is better. Reweased at de height of Stawin's purges, it provided escapism and a comforting iwwusion for de pubwic.[56]